Many wrote off Patrick Reed ahead of the PGA Championship.
The former LIV player jumped ship from the Saudi-backed league this year to play for a season on the DP World Tour, and immediately hit the ground running with two wins. But after a solid showing at The Masters, Reed hasn’t played since.
With Reed AWOL, many thought he’d be unprepared to contend at Aronimink, but he’s proven that theory dead wrong after 18 holes. He’s T8 after round one, and one stroke back of the lead after shooting a two-under 68.
It looks like he’s learned from Masters champion Rory McIlroy as to how to prepare for a major championship.
Patrick Reed has learned from Rory McIlroy by studying for Aronimink
This isn’t the first time we’ve made this mistake this season. McIlroy didn’t play for three weeks before The Masters, but turned up ready to roll and won his second Green Jacket.
That’s because he spent the weeks leading up to the tournament preparing for The Masters, playing the golf course and studying. And Reed has followed suit.
Speaking after his opening round, Reed said, “This year obviously a unique situation. With taking that time off since Augusta, it’s been just a lot of grinding and preparing.
“Really it’s kind of one of those that you finally feel like you can actually properly prepare. Even though I wasn’t playing tournament golf, I was kind of doing a lot of things and studying not only my golf game, but also around the golf course, kind of what is it that we’re going to deal with when we come up here.
“I feel like that was something usually coming into majors a little tired, even though I would say I’m tournament ready, because I’ve played a lot of tournament golf, but you don’t really actually get to prepare.
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“So this trip I was actually kind of able to prepare for this one. When I wasn’t playing golf, I was able to kind of get away from the game, spend time with family and the kiddos, and just kind of mentally reset and get myself mentally and physically sharp coming in.”
This is exactly the same rhetoric that came from McIlroy at Augusta National, which allowed him to become the first back-to-back Masters winner since Tiger Woods. Will this preparedness give Reed a shot to win his second major?
Where Patrick Reed led the field during his first round at Aronimink
Reed’s ball striking at Aronimink was world class, and he constantly found the greens to keep himself out of the dangerous rough which plagued so much of the field.
In fact, Reed led every single player on Strokes Gained: Approach, gaining 3.75 strokes to the field. That’s made even more impressive when you consider that Reed actually lost strokes to the field off the tee.
Reed had a solid putting day, and was average around the greens, giving him lots to clean up with his short game, but there’s a solid foundation for him to build on with his elite iron play.
And being one stroke off the lead after driving it poorly is a great sign for Reed.
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